cooperative

American  

[koh-op-er-uh-tiv, -op-ruh-tiv, -op-uh-ray-tiv] / koʊˈɒp ər ə tɪv, -ˈɒp rə tɪv, -ˈɒp əˌreɪ tɪv /

Or co-operative

adjective

1. working or acting together willingly for a common purpose or benefit.

2. demonstrating a willingness to cooperate.

   The librarian was cooperative in helping us find the book.

3. pertaining to economic cooperation.

   a cooperative business.

4. involving or denoting an educational program comprising both classroom study and on-the-job or technical training, especially in colleges and universities.

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noun

• cooperatives
  plural

1. a jointly owned enterprise engaging in the production or distribution of goods or the supplying of services, operated by its members for their mutual benefit, typically organized by consumers or farmers.

2. Also called co-op, cooperative apartment.

   1. a building owned and managed by a corporation in which shares are sold, entitling the shareholders to occupy individual units in the building.

   2. an apartment in such a building.

cooperative British  

/ kəʊˈɒpərətɪv, -ˈɒprə- /

adjective

1. willing to cooperate; helpful

2. acting in conjunction with others; cooperating

3. 1. (of an enterprise, farm, etc) owned collectively and managed for joint economic benefit

   2. (of an economy or economic activity) based on collective ownership and cooperative use of the means of production and distribution

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noun

1. a cooperative organization

2. Sometimes shortened to: coop. Also called: cooperative apartment. a block of flats belonging to a corporation in which shares are owned in proportion to the relative value of the flat occupied Compare condominium

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• co-operativeness
  noun
• cooperativeness
  noun
• uncooperativeness
  noun
• uncooperative
  adjective
• co-operatively
  adverb
• cooperatively
  adverb
• uncooperatively
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cooperatives
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cooperative

From the Late Latin word cooperātīvus, dating back to 1595–1605. See cooperate, -ive

Explanation

As an adjective, cooperative describes working together agreeably for a common purpose or goal as in cooperative play or cooperative employee. As a noun, a cooperative is a jointly-owned business or enterprise where members pool their resources to purchase, do work, and/or distribute things. You might join a food cooperative, for example, which jointly purchases a farmer's labor and then every member gets a basket of fresh fruits and vegetables each week of the growing season. In this use, the word is often shortened to co-op. You might also join a housing cooperative where you own your apartment and you and the other owners jointly care for the upkeep of the building and grounds.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cooperative cooperatives

Rubio said the US has "confidence in the security of all our bases" and said the administrations was working "very closely" with UK authorities, who "couldn't be more cooperative".

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

In 2022, its ingredients business partnered with British dairy cooperative First Milk to produce a specialist whey protein powder.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

“Unfortunately, inflation hasn’t been cooperative when it comes to passive savers and their returns,” said Mary Grace Roske, head of communications at CD Valet, a website to shop for bank certificates of deposit.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026

These are problems farmer Ashish Gupta confronts daily on his smallholding in India's Himachal Pradesh, which he farms as part of a cooperative.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

It was history's first cooperative international scientific venture, and almost everywhere it ran into problems.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Wildfires pose the greatest reliability risk in the Rocky Mountains, where they can disproportionately affect rural cooperatives, according to NERC.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026

But across the island, small-scale farmers and cooperatives already operate as private entrepreneurs, growing food, managing their own production and selling to local markets, most of which have been privatized.

From Salon ● Apr. 11, 2026

"Smallholders run up debts with cooperatives and sellers of crop protection products to try to improve production" and this worsens the cycle of poverty, he added.

From Barron's ● Jan. 26, 2026

Until 1995, the government controlled the amount of rice farmers produced by working closely with agricultural cooperatives.

From BBC ● May 21, 2025

Cheese was everywhere, cheese centers, cheese cooperatives, cheese stores and stands, perhaps even cheese ice cream.

From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck

Related Words

• collegial
• concerted
• coordinated
• harmonious
• interdependent
• reciprocal
• symbiotic
• united